Good Luck Team! / BG Energy Challenge 2012

Hey everyone, thanks for visiting today! :)

In about 8 days time, my former work colleagues will be putting their paces through the two-day event that is the BG Energy Challenge UK 2012.

The event takes place between 5th - 7th July 2012 in Dartmoor and tests the mental, physical and strategical minds of all the participants taking part in the demanding and action packed two days the event undertakes.

My former work colleagues at the EI in London are taking part this year and is made up of 6 team members who will undergo various challenges in order to complete the two day competition. Why are they doing this? Well it's because all the money goes to CHARITY, and not just ONE, but TWO! The charities are: Sparks and CARE International.

CARE International is a leading development and aid agnecy working in 87 countries providing change and help in poor communities, as well as finding routes for those who live in extreme poverty. Sparks is a Children's medical research chairty who help fund research into childhood diseases such as Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Cancer, Arthritis, Meningitis and many other diseases.

The team have raised 4/5 of their £5000 target, but need that extra push to get to their target and hit it! So please, if you can PLEASE DONATE and help the Team get to their £5000 target. You can DONATE via this link - Virgin Money Giving / EI BG Energy Challenge - any donation even if it's £5, £1 or £10 would be so much appreciated. The team have worked hard in training, as well as organising fundraising events and all while working full time too! So, please do donate where you can, and if you can please add Gift Aid too!

Here's a card below to CHEER and support the EI Team for all their hard work! (Tiny bit girly for the mostly, all-male team, but hey, it's all in the spirit of support!)

HUGE GOOD LUCK to the EI Team - Erica, Andy, Mark, Gareth, Terry and Michael for taking part in the BG Challenge all for Charity! You guys ROCK!

Thank you all for reading this post! Please donate if you can and join me in supporting the team! :) - Mel xx

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Challenges:

This card will be entered into the following challenges :)

Delightful Sketches / Anything Goes

Paper Make Up Stamps / Anything Goes

Incy Wincy / Anything Goes
Pan Pastel UK / Anything Goes

2 Sisters / Anything Goes
Fat Pages with Attitude / Anything Goes
Tammy Scrapin Corner / Anything Goes 

Love To Create / Anything Goes 

Party Time Tuesdays / Anything Goes
Joyful Stanper / Anything Goes 

Creatalicious Challenges / Anything Goes 

Let's Create Challenges / Anything Goes

(Pin)spirational Challenge 13 - Cuuuupcaaaakes!!!

Hi there, thanks for stopping by this week!

Today at Pinspirational Challenges we have been inspired by this picture below:

With our awesome sponsors: Melonheadz

So hopefully with the weather getting a little bit warmer, these cupcakes would be awesome for any Summer party! With this in mind, I've created this card below:

I used the Prima Madeline 6 x 6 collection, with beige / cream cardstock as the base. The image is from Tiddly Inks and she was coloured in using Promarkers and the following colours: Cocoa for the hair, Soft Green and Rose Pink for the dress, Caramel and Cocktail Pink for the cupcake, Poppy and Forest Green were used for the cherry on top, with Oatmeal for the face and hands.The buttons were from a stash that I had, and the butterfly was from the Sizzix Butterfly Sizzlits collection which I ran through my Sizzix Sidekick!

Give this weeks challenge a try and see what you can come up with and create from the inspired image! And if you get stuck for ideas, have a peek at our brilliant DT creations!

Follow the blog by joining the site and come back during the week for more updates and inspired creations! :)

Bingo! Aud Sentiments Challenge 57

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by!

It's not what you think - when I said Bingo. Unless you're psychic and you can read my mind! Challenge 57 at Aud Sentiments has unleashed our very own 'Bingo' board - but this one has no numbers on it but creative options for you to create your entry with!

Here's our 'Bingo' board:

For this fortnight's challenge you will need to pick a row or column and use the three items to create your project. The sentiment you use for your project must contain the word or phrase in your chosen column or row, but you can add to this if you wish to. So, for exmaple if you choose the column containing: "Happy", Ribbon and Die Cut, then you can use 'Happy Birthday'.

So... I picked the middle column: Flowers, Embossing and 'Thinking of You' and created this card below:

I used pink cardstock as a card base and then used 6 x 6 papers from Prima's Madeline collection. I then embossed a 'ticket' shape that I handcut from red Papermania cardstock with the 'Floral Fantasy' embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I ran this through my Sizziz Texture Boutique.The same process was used for the smaller 'ticket' embossed with a 'Dots' embossing folder from Sizzix. I used some dark pink two-tone 25mm open roses from Wild Orchid Crafts and some small rose buds from my stash. The image used is The Greeting Farm's 'Sweet Anya coloured in with Promarkers: Walnut for hair, Antique Pink for the dress and Rose Pink for the shorts / trousers and hair clip, Oatmeal was used for her face, arms and feet. The sentiment is from Hero Arts Essential Sentiment set.

Our fortnight's challenge is sponsored by: Stamp and Create 

 And the prize is a very lovely $20 gift certificate to use on their website :) How awesome is that?!

So with that in mind and the different combination of creative options, embellishments and sentiments available on our Aud Sentiments Bingo Board, what are you waiting for? Get creating! Can't wait to see all your entries and projects you create for our challenge! Check out the DT's creations on our challenge blog to inspire you! Good Luck! :)

Thanks for visiting, please follow and join my blogspot and check back to the site for more updates! <3

Charlie Brown Inspired @ (Pin)spirational Challenges!

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by at the blog today :)

Today we have a cartoon inspired picture at (Pin)spirational Challenges in the form of the lovely Charlie Brown. Now I really love Snoopy and the Peanuts crew and you know what Snoopy is like - causing slight mischief on his own, or chilling out with Woodstock, you gotta feel for Charlie having such a unique pet! :)
One of Charlie Brown's favourite sports (well it's the only one I've seen him play) is Baseball and we've been inspired at the challenge blog today to create something. So this week's challenge is inspired by this picture:

So following this picture, I've created this card:

I must admit I found it quite difficult to come up with ideas for a card, as I literally had a creative block. I thought this would make a sweet children's card or kids card because of the baseball or sports theme! I used Promarkers to colour in this Kitty Bee Image (who are our sponsors this week!) - colours are: Poppy and Black for the hat, Cocoa and Cinnamon for the bear, Sunflower for the shirt and Caramel for the bat. I'm still working on the colouring, so please excuse the 'patchy colouring' - my apologies! =S Though looking at it now, doesn't seem so bad, as it looks quite 'texture-y'. I used some star themed paper and banners for the background and red card stock for the card base.

Our sponsor this week is:

 So please check out their website for cute digital stamps and images!

Challenge starts today Tuesday 19th June and ends Monday 25th June 2012. Check out the (Pin)spirational Challenges blog for more details and other creations by our awesome DT!

Thanks for visiting! Please join and follow me and look out for more updates on the blog! :)

(Pin)spirational Challenge #11 - Shells

This week at (Pin)spirational Challenges we've got Summer in the air with our inspired image for the week:

 

This week's (Pin)spirational Challenge is sponsored by Floppy Latte, below is a little bit about them:

"Hi From Floppy Latte’s Digital Designs. FLDD is a digital graphics shop supplying the digi and hybrid crafter with digital stamps, digital papers, and digital die cut files. Floppy Latte’s is your one stop source for all types of digi stamps for those great handcrafted cards and other projects. Started in 2010 by happy accident, FLDD has grown to over 400 images,a customer rewards program, an active blog with weekly freebie, weekly newsletter and challenge sponsor. Floppy Latte’s strives to be your go-to source for images at at great prices! Please take a moment and visit me at Floppy Latte’s Digital Designs or drop me an email at admin@floppylattedesigns.com with your questions, comments, image requests, or just to say hi! I am proud to sponsor challenge blogs such as this one and hope that you enjoy the images!" - Jessica

So what are you waiting for?! Enter into our challenge this week and get creative & inspired with our image! The prize is a $10 voucher to use at Floppy Latte. So.. spread the word and enter in our challenge!

Wish I was on a beach right now (not in rainy London, boo :( ) And with the image above being this week's inspiration, I thought I would go back to remembering times when I was younger (and sometimes even now) of picking up shells on the beach, whether that was on Brighton beach, Eastbourne or Bournemouth. So below I've created this card inspired by shells on the beach...

The image I used is 'Summer Mae' from Some Odd Girl, which I thought was perfect for this card, I coloured her in with some Promarkers: Oatmeal for the skin, Cinnamon for the hair, Cool Grey 4 & Black for the sunglasses and shoes, Azure for the shorts, Rose Pink & Forest Green for the top and either Raw Senna or Caramel for the bag. I totally gotta work more harder on my colouring!
I used a blue and green cardstock from my stash, and the background beach scene is a cartoon 'Summer Beach' from Wallcoo.com (random image through a Google.com search), the shells are from Iconeasy.com (also through a random search on Google.com) which I printed out, cut individually and adhered to the card with foam dots. I also used Prima's En Francais 6 x 6 collection for the emphemera pieces which I fussy cut from a page in that collection to add a bit more interest to the card.

So I hope that you all like my creation, and I hope it inspires you to enter into our (Pin)spirational Challenge this week! Also check out the other cards made by the Pins DT too!

I'm hoping my card with bring some sun to London town! :) Hope so! Thanks for visting! :)

Gloria! (In Excelsis Deo)

Hey there! Thanks for visiting today :) The title of today's post is actually a hymn I used to sing when I was back in school many, many years ago in assembly with other children in our year, and is coincedently the name of a lovely friend of mine who I've known since I was probably still at school too!

I made a card for my gorgeous friend Gloria as she's been in hospital for the last week because of her condition - Hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus is a condition known as 'water in the brain' where there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cavities / ventircles of the brain. Gloria has suffered from this condition since she was a child and she's now in her late 20's. More recently her condition has caused her to frequently be in and out of hospital for check ups, monitoring and treatment.

She's an awesome girl, I've known her for about 9 or 10 years now, we first met through a mutual of friend of ours and I've shared many great moments of her life and I'll no doubt continue to share more moments with her :) She's been in hospital this week and I visited her yesterday (Saturday) to see how she was doing. And as always to let her know I'm here for her and hope she gets well soon - the crafter in me made a card to cheer her up and let her know I'm thinking of her! So here's the card below:

I've used the Greeting Farm stamp 'Cuddle Anya' which I've always thought was a really cute 'Get Well Soon' stamp - the teddy bear outfit just gives it away :) And I used the Anna Lee collection of papers from Prima. I used some Anita's Arts Blue ribbon, some cotton string and a sentiment from my stash. I used the Lacy Ovals Spellbinders Nestabilities and cream cardstock for the base and added layering. I'm really obsessed with ribbons lately, no idea why - big ribbons too. The more ribbon the better it seems! :)

Gloria really liked the card, and posted a picture of it on Facebook :D and thanked me for cheering her up (Yay!) We always manage to have a laugh together, so I hope she's feeling a lot better! <3

To find out more about Hydrocephalus, here's some links below:

- Shine Charity UK
- NHS Choices UK / Hydrocephalus
- Wikipedia / Hydrocephalus

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Aud Sentiments Challenge 56 - Any Sentiment for a Child's Birthday

I am thoroughly enjoying being part of a great Design Team at Aud Sentiments! Thanks ladies for the first great fortnight! :)

The challenge this fortnight is to create a card with Any Sentiment for a Child's Birthday. So get your creative heads on and enter in our challenge this fortnight via the Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog. Team A have come up and created some gorgeous cards to inspire you, so check out their creations on the blog! My creation is below:

Our challenge this fortnight is proudly sponsored by Tiddly Inks - below is a little bit about them:

Tiddly Inks offers digital stamps and digital papers, created by Christy Croll. Christy is a self-trained illustrator who likes simple, cute and quirky drawings with a sense of humor. She draws what amuses her, which means some days it is quirky and cute and other days it is a bit of a twisted gothic feel. 

So check out the Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog for the challenge, as well as submit your entry into our challenge!

Dots & Stripes at (Pin)spirational Challenges!

A few weeks ago I was asked to join the DT team on (Pin)spirational Challenges, which I was pretty chuffed with! So... without further ado I've created my card inspired by using this weeks (Pin)spirational image:

This week's challenge is sponsored by Pattie's Creations - so make sure you join us at (Pin)spirational Challenges and share your creations with us!

My card is below which I've created using mostly blue and green colours (green is my favourite colour, btw!) I've added a few stripey-themed papers (very subtly!) and the dots I've substituted for buttons!

The materials I've used are: Anita's Arts cream ribbon, cut to size to make the bow, the buttons are from a stash co-ordinated with the colours from the inspiration image. The stamp used is the Gretting Farm's Hula Anya colours in with Blush, Sky Blue, Bright Green, Sunflowers and Cinnamon Promarkers. I used a Spellbinders Lacy Ovals die, light blue cardstock as a base for the card and two green and blue papers from DCWV's Blossoms and Butterflies stack 8 x 8 cardstock pad. I also used a Martha Stewart corner punch and rounded the corners of the card too.

The card makes me feel very Summery, London town has been very rainy for the past few days (that's British weather for you!), so I'm hoping this card will bring London some sunshine! :)

Golden Jubilee Weekend

So it's the Queen's Golden Jubilee this year and this weekend has kicked celebrations off in style. The majority of the lovely British public will be lucky enough to have four days off for the Golden Jubilee, some will have to go back to work soon though (Boo!)

So in honour of her Majesty I've made my very own 'Jubilee' Card Set using the Greeting Farm Stamps and some patriotic blue and red colours!

The papers used were a mix from the Teddy Bo Collection and the Simply British Collection - free with the current editions of Simply Cards and Papercrafts and Simply Homemade magazines.

The stamp used was the Greeting Farm's Princess Anya 2, and the card size used were 4 x 4, the red & blue buttons were from my stash and the images were coloured in with Promarkers (Azure, Poppy, Sunflower, Gold, Blush, Oatmeal and Cool Grey 4)

The Golden Jubilee Set comes with 4 cards in blue and red sets of two (so you get two red set cards and two blue set cards) The red set background cards alternate with a Princess Anya in a blue dress and blue banner and the blue set vice versa (as in the images above). The set also come in a box with a perspex / plastic cover with greetings that you yourself can stick on the front with glue or double sided tape - these include 'Congrats', 'Best Wishes' 'Thank You', 'Hello' and 'Happy Birthday'. There are also 4 envelopes with the set too! I wonder if the Queen would like it?! :)

So if you're having some extra days off, having a few street parties or garden parties in the next few days, enjoy and I hope it doesn't rain where you are!

She's Leaving on a Jet Plane...

My friend Cheryl from our 'Secondary School Collective' - we go waaaaay back, like 15 years (I sound reeeaaally old!) is leaving the hum-drum-hustle-and-bustle of London town to move to Cheltenham :( and here's a little card I made for her to say: "Dooooon't gooooo!!!"

Cheryl and I went to Secondary School together in London, she was in 'L' and I was in 'C' (our registration / form class was named after letters!) and we shared some classes together, ('N' and 'O' - I know, more letters!) but more significantly and to a certain extent even now we share the same circle of friends, we also more recently, live near each other too.
Chez is moving to Cheltenham to live and work with her partner, Marcus whom she's been with for nearly six years now - so technically it was inevitable! :( But... although I am sad to see her leave the city in which she's lived, worked and studied all her life, I'm pretty chuffed for her, and she's a pretty awesome chick and I hope it all goes well for her! Next step - wedding bells... LOL.

So as with many ocassions, I made a card for her - as my friend Kayleigh would say: 'Mel has a card for EVERYTHING!' to wish Chez all the best for the future.
I used a Tiddly Inks image for the centre focus, coloured her in with some Promarkers (Oatmeal for skin, Cocoa for hair, Forest Green for dress, Rose Pink for stripey sleeves and Cool Grey 4 for shoes. The flowers were coloured in with Sunflower, I think) I tend not blend all my colours, because I can't quite work it out and me and blending and shading doesn't particularly work well - anything for a simple life! The 'Best Wishes' text is from a Lawn Fawn stamp I have and the papers were a mix of Glitz 6 x 6 Paper - Pretty in Pink and another piece from my stash (can't remember the paper collection, sorry!). The ribbon is from Anita's Arts and the tag is from K&Company, the buttons are from a stash I had, and the flat back pearls are from Paper Cellar.

Tiddly Inks is pretty much on my image hit list for colouring - look out for some more cards with Tiddly Inks inspiration! :)

Colouring with Harriet

As a 26 year old, on occasion the child within me sometimes makes an appearance, especially when it comes to colouring in!

I bought a some Greeting Farm rubber stamps (Travel Anya, Swett Anya & I Heart Sweaters stamps) a few days back and being colouring them in on my lonesome :( can take a bit of time, I brought them with me to my friend Harriet's band rehearsal so that I could colour them in - while she rehearsed with her band - with my ever growing colllection of Promarkers :)

So after drumming with her brother Daryl and two friends Steve and Shane, she took a few breaks in between to help me colour in some black and white stamped Greeting Farm images. I also got her to colour in some Tiddly Ink digital stamps and Some Odd Girl digis also. Her efforts are pictured above with Cuddle Anya (stamp with the Bear Hat and Teddy Bear), Travel Anya (Air Hostess in which she styled it on her manager / friend Chantal) and the I Heart Sweaters couple (wrapped up in a jumpers and scarves!)

Harriet did a pretty great job, colouring in is not easy, especially trying not to go over the lines and finding a good colour combination to colour the outfits in! She did make a few them clash on purpose though! But they still looked awesome! I thought the colours still went well together! I'll be making some cards, or tags with these! :) Thanks Harriet!